I planted this Blue Eye Susan passionflower vine about 3 weeks ago. It has climbed a good 4 feet since it arrived. It bloomed a few hours ago. When I checked it out just after sunrise today, the bud was about the size of my thumb (maybe a bit shorter). Then suddenly, VOILÀ! it's open. We are very excited.

Gorgeous!! I need to plant my seeds of my white hardy passionvine. But if I do I'm just throwing them outside and pointing my finger at them and telling them to grow!! LOL. And now I need a tropical one thanks to you!! LOL

Pu'ole, I have the same vine and am so thrilled that it made it through the winter. The vine is growing like a "weed" but so far no blooms. Lady Margaret red is just outside my window has she has been blooming just one at time. We had just the one day of sun and it is overcast and misting again this morning. The beautiful flowers need sun.

We have the same passion vine. Oh, I tell you, if we lived closer to each other, people would start rumors. We are expecting 2 more blooms today. It's like a present every day. Mine goes crazy on Miracle Grow. I have a whole bucket of it and I am generous with the stuff.

hahaha. We could trade flowers all the time. Anything that grows here has to be really hardy. Right now we are in a flood mode, by June we will start a drought and temps will be over a hundred by the first of July. This past winter had more than one day in the lower 20's. Always a challenge.

Thanks, Randy. My Olympus does nice close-up and macro work all by itself. I just have to set it, point and shoot. The file is then tweaked with Photoshop: cropping, levels, brightness, contrast and it's ready for Dave's garden.

The Gulf Fritillary caterpillars ate all the leaves, leaving only the stems shortly after that picture was taken. It persevered, made some new leaves and a few flowers, which the caterpillars ate again down to almost nothing. So, it can go fly a kite. I no longer cares if it survives or not. I have a rule in my garden: survive or be replaced.

It's such a heartache to see such a beautiful plant devastated in less than 2 days. I now have other passionflowers that have yet to bloom but at least the caterpillars leave them alone because they contain deadly alcaloids. Butterfly gardening is vastly overrated unless you have a masochistic trait in your psyche.

I'm with you on the butterfly garden Sylvain. I had some passionflower vines when I lived in Calif and battled those butterflies endlessly -- and mostly unsuccessfully. I would not go down that road again and plant something that I know is going to be devoured in front of my eyes. Frankly, I think butterflies are pretty in that form but they are not worth having their voracious caterpillar stage eat all your flowers. It's not a popular opinion though.